Incremental Software Architecture

Chapter 14End-State Architecture Stress Testing Driven by Pressure Points

Here we are again, continuing the discussion about the preparation for the end-state architecture stress testing. The methods of discovering pressure sources in an integrated production environment have been covered so far. By now it is clear that pressure-prone areas in an end-state architecture could be caused by a wide range of software and hardware conditions that simply clot or congest network sections. The analogy to a city power grid is indeed a good example that explains the phenomena of a computing environment slowdown or complete shutdown. Unfortunately, organizations are too familiar with such circumstances that only add chaos to existing production environments and threaten business profitability.

Discovering pressure-prone areas in end-state architecture (discussed in Chapter 13), either as a proposition on paper or already operating in a production environment, is a good start. As discussed, the analysis renders sections that could potentially harm business transactions on a network. This effort narrows down the vast production spaces into interest areas for the end-state stress testing initiative.

But the end-state architecture stress testing could not pinpoint the exact locations on a network or focus on a software entity if merely a trouble-prone area is called out. We need to do better than this.

The Justification for Inserting Pressure Points

The mission would then be to drill down ...